By Rauf Oyewole
A volunteer group of women in rural communities across Bauchi State tagged ‘Mama2Mama’, old and experienced women in maternal child care and their male counterparts ‘Fathers4GoodHealth’ who are driving good health at the rural communities particularly the hard-to-reachj communities where resistance to healthcare access is recorded.
It was observed that several traditional husbands are preventing their wives from accessing essential healthcare services. This practice is said to have put the lives of many women in danger while many had lost their lives to avoidable death of the child home delivery that resulted in serious complications.
Another fundamental health issue is accessing routine immunisation and antenatal care (ANC) during and after pregnancy. The state currently has over 115,000 children who are severely malnourished according to the United Nations Children's Fund's Humanitarian Situation Report of (Jan–June) 2025 while the Country carries the burden of over 3.5million cases.
Bothered with the situation the UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office in collaboration with the United States Government strengthened the local volunteers to mobilise, educate and assist the locals on access to good health care services. The group, Mama2Mama and Fathers4GoodHealth in many local government areas have ensured that mothers ensure good health practice from inception of pregnancy to the second birthday of a child —first 1,000 days in a child's life.
While speaking in Misau, Misau local government area of Bauchi, Aisha Magaji, whose two-year twins are severely malnourished was enlightened to seek medical attention at a primary health care within Misau to save her twins. “Their condition gives me concern. I have five children before them, but since their birth Hassan (boy) doesn't like to take food while Hassana (girl) takes little food,” she narrates their ordeal after dismissing exclusive breastfeeding.
Aisha has been travelling about 150km to access the live saving Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) at a facility in Kafin Madaki, jointly provided by the Bauchi State Government and UNICEF to treat malnutrition. “I spend over N12,500 travelling to that place every two weeks and sadly, we don't likely get the commodity when we visit, they might be out of stock and don't have money to keep going. We have resorted to taking only pap and groundnut but they don't like eating it,” she said.
Aisha who said that she has now been enlightened on precautionary measures to prevent malnutrition as early as possible. “These Mama2Mama and Fathers4GoodHealth have enlightened a lot of our people and have changed the mindset of our husbands who do not support enrollment in antenatal care.
For Aminat Yakubu, mother of seven with 8th pregnancy has had all her children well nourished and immunised as a result of the community mobilisers. Looking strong and healthy in her third trimester, she was seen receiving attention while encouraging other mothers to embrace good health care practice.
“I have long been sensitised to always prioritise seeking medical services anytime I conceive and ensure routine antenatal and immunisation. I practice exclusive breastfeeding and realised that all my children are healthy. This gives me peace of mind and saves me money.”
‘Volunteers winning against severe acute malnutrition’
Over 6,000 women and men of Mama2Mama and Fathers4GoodHealth spread across the state have penetrated the core resistance areas where exclusive breastfeeding is seen as taboo and immunisation is considered as alien. While men form forums where exclusive breastfeeding is discussed among their peers, women use practical experience to lure new mothers to embrace malnutrition prevention measures.
It has been three years that Jummai Musa, a volunteer in Misau has been mobilising pregnant women and nursing mothers to health care facilities to ensure adequate knowledge is given on nutrition and proper antenatal care. “In my efforts, there was a lady I convinced to give birth in the hospital, it was a war and we had to put more extra effort to ensure she did exclusive breastfeeding. She never did it before, I told her I have been breastfeeding my kids exclusively and she accepted and today she's giving testimony and thanking me.
Nazif Hassan, Leader of Fathers for Good Health in Dawaki said that he engages men to support their wives from pregnancy to immunisation.
Hassan noticed that most of the problems come from the men especially during the process of breastfeeding from ages 0-6 months. He said most men insist their child be fed with water and food instead of the exclusive method, citing traditional ways of introducing food at birth with chances of survival.
“We go from house to house to talk to our fellow men to support their wives during pregnancy, from antenatal care to birth to immunisation, and they are really supporting us," Hassan said.
Hassan also said the group also go round looking out for children suffering from malnutrition. He described how they were trained on how to use gadgets to test children suffering from malnutrition.
‘Over 40,000 children got life saving supplement’
Philomena Irene is a Nutrition Specialist with UNICEF’s Bauchi Field Office, she said that more than 40,000 children aged between 6–23 months have benefited from small-quantity lipid-based nutritional supplements aimed at preventing malnutrition, through support from the United States Government.
The project, she said has trained more than 6,000 Mama-to-Mama and Fathers4GoodHealth volunteers on nutrition skills, public health messaging and prevention of malnutrition. Over 50 healthcare workers at facility level on nutrition supplementation and related interventions.
Philomena further said the project has strengthened logistics and health information management systems, including the District Health Information Management System. Also improved Food and Nutrition Committees at the local government level, encouraging LGAs to take ownership of nutrition programmes.
We have supported LGAs to commit and release funds for nutrition interventions, including procurement of nutrition commodities, ready-to-use therapeutic food and multiple micronutrient supplements for preventing anaemia among pregnant women. We have facilitated advocacy with state legislators and local government chairmen to increase budgetary commitments and establish dedicated budget lines for nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific activities,” she said.
She added that the first 1,000 days from pregnancy through a child’s first two years is the most critical period for a child’s development and survival. She described it as a “window of opportunity” because rapid brain, muscular, skeletal and vital-organ development takes place during the period.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says more than 40,000 children aged between six and 23 months in Bauchi State have benefited from nutrition support provided through funding from the United States Government.
The Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Rilwanu Muhammad, said that the initiative having observed that some fathers hinder vaccination, antenatal attendance and proper nutrition.
He said the programme started in Ningi and Misau LGAs which has now been extended to over 10 LGAs. The volunteers, selected by their communities, work without pay but are highly recognized for their role in the first 1,000 days.
"They track women to ensure facility delivery, postnatal care, immunisation, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and then introduction of complementary feeding," Muhammad said.
He expressed concern over the gap between antenatal attendance and facility delivery. "Almost 70 to 80 percent of mothers in Bauchi State attend antenatal care, but only about 35 to 40 percent deliver in a healthcare facility," he said, adding that the state occasionally supports volunteers with transport allowances to reach hard-to-reach settlements.
0 Comments